Unwritten rules
by Tuvstarr's lost heart
Summary: Tumblr Prompt: Shin-ah doesn't know how to take it when Hak teases other people. Featuring Shin-ah, Hak and the rest of the HHB.


_This prompt is my first attempt to write something out of_ Shin-ah's _POV. It was Hard! Please let me know if I got his characterization off._

 **Prompt:** Shin-ah doesn't know how to take it when Hak teases other people

* * *

Shin-ah didn't understand.

He was currently standing on the sideline, watching the chaotic scene unfolding.

Hak had, once again, said something rude to Yona, Shin-ah had missed exactly what, which had quickly turned into Kija scolding Hak for his disrespect towards the princess. Hak, completely unfazed by the admonishment, had just shrugged and pretended to move on to tend to the fire again, though Shin-ah had seen the glint in his eyes as he did so, and Shin-ah could tell that the matter was _not_ yet resolved.

Once the scene had calmed, and Kija had returned to his previous task of hanging up the laundry, Shin-ah had watched as Hak turned his attention towards the white dragon again. With the purest of shit-eating grins, he had picked up a poor, innocent spider he spotted on the ground, and was now busying himself with trying to shove said spider down the neck of the white dragon. Kija was screeching in panic, and when he activated his dragon-hand, letting it grow tenfold and swinging it wildly around, Shin-ah started to worry that he would actually hurt someone, most likely Hak, in the frantic process of killing the little spider and demolish the bodyguard.

Yoon was yelling at the dragon to calm down before he wrecked the camp completely.

Jae-ha was just standing by, shaking his head in exasperation and wondering why he had decided to join this idiot band of maniacs in the first place.

Yona and Zeno quickly stepped in to reach the dragon in order to show him that the spider had since long fallen off him and had scurried off back into the forest, far, far away from the madness.

While Yona looked very worried, Zeno merely giggled to himself as he jumped onto Kija's back and held on, trying to calm the dragon on by talking to him, but it honestly looked like he was more concerned with enjoying the ride than working on seriously calming the panicked dragon down.

Hak, on the other hand, was laughing so hard that he could barely hold himself upright as he danced around the camp, effortlessly dodging the gigantic claw Kija flailed around in blind rage and throwing condescending comments at Kija to egg him on even further.

Shin-ah didn't understand any of it.

This happened over and over, and every time it left Shin-ah with the distinct feeling like he was missing something, a crucial piece in solving the mystery of understanding human behaviour. It made him feel uncertain and unease, and he never really knew how to react when Hak teased someone.

He couldn't comprehend why Hak felt the need to be mean to people all the time. Moreover, he didn't understand why he also defended Shin-ah whenever Jae-ha tried to make Shin-ah take off his mask. It didn't make sense at all.

Shin-ah knew that he lacked the social skills that seemed to come so easily to the others. Though as much as he failed to understand the unwritten rules of socialising, he also knew that it didn't matter to the rest of the group, they liked him just as he was. He was more than grateful for the companionship they had shown him, and most of the time it didn't bother him that he fell short in that regard, because he had his family and they had welcomed him and made him a member of their group when no one else would. Since his predecessor Ao had died when Shin-ah was four, the only company he had ever had was Ao, and while she was more than enough most of the time, she didn't talk back. He couldn't learn about human interactions from her, and observing the villagers from afar could only tell him so much as he rarely ventured close enough to hear what they were saying.

No, Shin-ah knew that he didn't understand, but as much as he tried, he could not figure it out on his own either, so he swore to ask the one person who could tell him why, when the right moment appeared.

He would not feel comfortable asking right there and then, with the eyes of the whole group staring at him.

…

A moment occurred a couple of weeks later when they were visiting a fishing village large enough to have a small market going, where farmers inland could trade their goods for riches from the sea. They had all split up to wander around aimlessly as Yoon had told them that he needed to trade some medicine and that they could all relax for a bit, and Shin-ah had somehow ended up gracing the stalls with Hak, Jae-Ha, and Yona.

Yona was bouncing up and down, excitedly pointing at the different merchandise and dragging Hak, Jae-ha, and Shin-ah with her to take a closer look. Hak let her indulge in her excitement for a while, until he couldn't contain himself anymore when she tried on a pair of leather gloves. He said something about Yona really needing to buy the gloves to cover up her hands as they had gone very ugly lately, all calloused and rough from her archery training.

Yona's cheeks popped out and her nostrils grew wide while her cheeks grew red in fury. "Shut up! I hate you, Hak!" She spat out before storming off, closely followed by an amused Jae-ha, who only rolled his eyes at Hak's antics before chasing after the angered princess in order to try to undo the damage by smoothing over Hak's teasing.

Left behind was Shin-ah and Hak, the former donning a confused wrinkle between his eyebrows while the other's eyes twinkled with a barely contained glee.

This was the moment Shin-ah had been waiting for. Now he just had to work up the courage to ask.

Swallowing nervously, he decided to go for it. He was never going to understand if he didn't ask.

"Hak?"

"Hm, yeah? What is it, Shin-ah?" Hak asked a little surprised. Shin-ah rarely initiated any conversation at all, and definitely not with him. Usually, the only two that could make him talk, and then only in one, or two syllable sentences, was Yona and Zeno.

"Why…" he swallowed again. This was a bad idea, a really, really bad idea, but he felt that if he could understand this, then he would have unlocked another piece of information on how to interact with others. "Why do you tease people all the time?"

"Uh? Why do you ask that?" Does it bother you?" Hak asked, and Shin-ah jumped a bit at how accurate Hak's guess had been.

"I… Um… Yes, a little," he answered, and was, once again grateful for his mask as he could feel his cheeks grow warm with embarrassment.

"I dunno, it's fun to tease the Princess because she gets so pissed off, ya know? And White snake is just begging for it, with him sitting on his high horses all the time," Hak explained, but that didn't make Shin-ah feel any better about it. Though he couldn't make himself ask anymore, the attention the other man gave him already made him squirm enough as it was.

"Oh, I see," he eventually settled for, even though he didn't feel any more enlightened than before, and hoped that Hak would drop the matter, despite being the one that had initiated the conversation.

After a moment's silence, and a glance from Hak that Shin-ah couldn't quite read, Hak seemed to make up his mind about something.

"Right, I think it's time to go find the Princess. I don't trust Droopy eyes to be alone with her one bit," he said and started walking in the direction their comrades had left a couple of minutes ago, only throwing a quick glance towards Shin-ah to confirm that he followed. Shin-ah sighed in relief and trailed behind quietly. While he hadn't quite reached a more thorough understanding of why Hak insisted on his bullying habits, at least the other hadn't pressed him on why he wasn't completely comfortable with it.

Then, as they walked through the crowd, Hak opened his mouth again as if to say something, before closing it again and frowning. He remained quiet for a moment, then sighed slightly, lifted his hand to scratch at the scruff of his neck, and without turning to face Shin-ah, muttered a quiet.

"If it bothers you when I pick fights, I'll ease up on it a bit."


End file.
